Behind the Scenes in the Blogosphere

This is a quick post to highlight the publication of a study called "Behind the Scenes in the Blogosphere, Advice from Established Bloggers," by Nora Barnes, director of the center for marketing research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

I learned about the study because I was one of the bloggers surveyed.

The study offers great advice for those contemplating creation of and/or in the midst of creating a corporate blog. My quick summary of the sixty-page study is:

• Be ready to invest time. (More than you think.)
• Have a plan. (Don't blog for blogging's sake.)
• Let it be a conversation. (This can be hard for one-way trained PR staff and marketers.)
• Be real. (No spin, blandness, or corporate-speak.)
• Pick your keywords (and check that you're coming up on searches for them)
• Link to other bloggers (and they'll do likewise and increase your PageRank)

Here's a link to the report.